On July 10, a delegation led by Professor Verna YIU, also Vice President (academic) of the University of Alberta (UoA), and Dr. HUANG Cen, former Associate Vice President (international), paid a visit to Lanzhou University. LI Xun, Vice President of LZU, held a talk with the guests. WANG Wei, Vice President of LZU also met with the delegation.

LI Xun holds a talk with the guests

The two sides sign an agreement

LI Xun stated that both LZU and the UoA are located in high-latitude cold and arid regions, sharing the common mission of delivering high-quality medical services. He hopes that the two sides could jointly develop international research programs focusing on health issues in cold and arid areas, and create featured research fields based on the geographical advantages of Gansu Province. Both parties will implement the dual-supervisor system in clinical medicine, public health, stomatology and other disciplines, and select young backbone talents for further clinical training. Efforts will also be made to build an interdisciplinary AI health platform integrating medicine, science and engineering, and carry out joint research on intelligent diagnosis and treatment of prevalent diseases in western China, he said.

WANG Wei introduced the education characteristics, disciplinary layout and construction of LZU's State Key Laboratory of Natural Product Chemistry. He noted that the two universities feature strong disciplinary complementarity and broad cooperation prospects. He looks forward to reaching consensus on Sino-foreign cooperative education programs, promoting in-depth teacher-student exchanges and joint scientific research, and laying a solid foundation for deeper cooperation.

YIU spoke highly of the disciplinary strengths of LZU and elaborated on the education features of the UoA. She mentioned that the UoA has maintained cooperative ties with Chinese universities for more than 40 years, boasting rich practical experience and solid mutual trust. The unique geographical location and disciplinary ecosystem of LZU create enormous room for bilateral cooperation. The UoA attaches great importance to its partnership with LZU, and will take cooperation in science and medicine as the starting point to advance interdisciplinary integration, talent exchange, cross-disciplinary platforms and high-level research collaboration.

HUANG Cen proposed to advance in-depth cooperation in more academic fields by leveraging inter-governmental projects and disciplinary strengths of both universities. Efforts must be made to accelerate cooperation in disciplines including science, AI-enabled healthcare, auxiliary medical treatment, nuclear medicine, medical materials and stomatology, she said. The two sides agreed to maintain close communication on relevant cooperation matters to ensure tangible outcomes.

During the meeting, the two parties signed a Letter of Intent for the Dual Bachelor's Degree Program in Chemistry.

Also present were officials from LZU's Office of International Cooperation and Exchange, Medical School, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, School of Public Health, First Clinical Medical College, Second Clinical Medical College and School of Stomatology.